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Many pregnant women still smoking, Alberta study of 28,000 shows ($$) 

A disturbing number of women in Alberta are smoking during pregnancy despite the well-established risks to both the mother and the fetus, a new provincial study has found.In what is billed as the largest study of its kind ever undertaken in Canada, the Alberta government tracked chemicals, metals and minerals in the blood of pregnant women and, in general, found levels of contaminants on par with or lower than accepted levels nationally and around the world.

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• Bars take hit as noose tightens on smoking in public 

When Alberta's Tobacco Reduction Act kicked in last year, the new law transformed the province from a smoker's haven to a leader in limiting where people can smoke.

The legislation's final phase took effect Thursday. Stores that sell prescription drugs will no longer be allowed to sell cigarettes, unless they have gas bars, erected mall kiosks or created separate enclosed spaces for smoke sales.

Tobacco sales have also been outlawed at health-care facilities and post-secondary schools.

While many bars, bingos and casinos contend they've taken a significant financial hit because of the smoking ban, it's been business as usual at some restaurants.

Okotoks' In Cahoots Bar and Grill welcomed the provincial law forcing it and its competitors to go smoke-free, said manager Esther Vanderermeulen.

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N.B. to ban tobacco displays  

Indeed, as of tomorrow, cigarettes and other tobacco products will no longer be displayed on so-called power boards behind shop counters.

The products, which studies have suggested attract the attention of consumers in general and young people in particular, will have to be kept in a drawer, under the counter or in another part of the store that can't be seen by customers.

Advertisements for tobacco products sold in the store will be limited to black ink on white paper that is no larger than 10 centimetres by 10 centimetres.

Health Minister Mike Murphy says the new rules, which are similar to current regulations in place in Saskatchewan, are the next crucial step in the fight to keep cigarettes out of the minds and mouths of young New Brunswickers.

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Woman, 85, dies in apartment fire 

An 85-year-old woman died Thursday of smoke inhalation following a small apartment fire in a seniors' home in Montreal.

Three other residents of the building in the St. Laurent borough were taken to hospital, also to be treated for smoke inhalation.

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Lit cigarette possibly ignited deadly Montreal apartment fire: police 

An 85-year-old Montreal woman died in an apartment fire after apparently falling asleep with a lit cigarette in her hand.

Montreal police spokesman Raphael Bergeron says emergency personnel evacuated several floors of the senior's residence in the city's St-Laurent borough.

He says the woman may have fallen asleep in her 7th-floor bedroom while smoking a cigarette.

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Tobacco takes another hit 

Results from the provincial government’s quarterly fiscal update released last month indicate that tobacco sales have been on a steady decline since implementation of the Tobacco Reduction Act, which came into effect almost one year ago.

“This is world class legislation,” said Action on Smoking and Health executive director Les Hagen. “Only a handful of jurisdictions globally have implemented the same measures as Alberta.”

Projected tobacco tax revenue is short $50 million for the current fiscal year, and tobacco shipments are on a five per cent decline.

The reductions follow a provincial smoking ban, erasing of powerwalls, and a 63 per cent tax increase on tobacco in 2007.

The final steps in the Tobacco Reduction Act — banning tobacco sales in pharmacies, supermarkets, and post-secondary institutions — commences on New Year’s Day.

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Tobacco sales slide for second straight year 

Tobacco sales in Alberta are declining for a second consecutive year, says the provincial government's latest quarterly fiscal update.

Health groups attribute the decline to the new Tobacco Reduction Act.

"It appears that the Tobacco Reduction Act is having the desired effect on tobacco consumption," Angeline Webb, cancer control analyst for the Canadian Cancer Society, Alberta/N.W.T. division, said in a news release. "We are delighted to see a continuing decline in tobacco sales following the implementation of effective legislation."

According to last month's quarterly update, tobacco tax revenue for this current fiscal year is short about $50 million, down six-per-cent of the initial budget projection. This follows a five-per-cent decline in tobacco sales last year, following a 67-cent-per-pack cigarette tax increase in 2007. . . .

Coalition members say the provincial government should go further to protect Albertans from tobacco use, especially teenagers.

Health Canada's 2007 smoking survey, released last August, found 20 per cent of Alberta teens aged 15 to 19 smoke compared to 15 per cent across Canada. The coalition believes the higher smoking rate among Alberta's teens can be attributed to greater affordability.

"We continue to have serious concerns about the elevated rates of smoking among Alberta teens," Hastings said

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LETTER: Ban on tobacco funds doesn't threaten academic freedom 

Prof. Carl V. Phillips's letter was an entertaining -- as opposed to enlightening -- read because he confuses the issue substantially.

As a U of A graduate student who has raised concerns, in my capacity as a representative on the General Faculties Council (GFC), about the university's continued acceptance of considerable sums of money from the tobacco industry, I feel compelled to respond.

Phillips makes a strong case for academic freedom. The interesting thing is that, in fact, no one is trying to interfere with the freedom of Phillips or any other academic to study, write, or speak publicly about research on smokeless tobacco, or tobacco.

The concern is that the funding for this research is, in part, being provided by the tobacco industry itself. Questioning the appropriateness of this source of funding does not compromise academic freedom. . . .

True academic freedom, of which Phillips speaks highly, can only be achieved if the source of the funding does not have a strong vested interest in the outcome.

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LETTER: No safe alternative 

It's hard to understand why the University of Alberta still employs apologists for Big Tobacco.

Prof. Carl V. Phillips's unimaginative defence of "new and promising ideas" that can "reduce ... risks by 99 per cent" would be laughable if he wasn't serious. He directs us to his website, TobaccoHarmReduction.org for details, where one can find a link to another website, smokersonly.org, which contains the wisdom of another academic, Dr. Brad Rodu.

Rodu is another proponent of smokeless tobacco and is also joined at the hip with the tobacco industry. Unfortunately for Rodu, he has attracted the attention of the American Cancer Society as well as the American Dental Association. . . .

One can only hope that reason will ultimately prevail. Phillips may moan about "attacks on academic freedom" and creatively call legitimate concerns "anti-health activism," but the end result will be the same -- an industry that peddles death and disease will one day cease to exist.

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LETTER: New Year's resolution 

The absurd suggestions by Prof. Carl V. Phillips fly in the face of the very principles of public health. His comments on academic freedom are fatally flawed and present as a thinly-veiled example of his shameless promotion of smokeless tobacco. To promote smokeless tobacco as an alternative to cigarettes is deceptive, as it keeps the brain's craving centre stimulated.

A new year is a good time to reflect on what's ahead, and perhaps make some big decisions. Smokers are encouraged to seek out the help they may need to quit, such as safe medicinal support and talk therapy.

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LETTER: U of A right to take tobacco cash for research 

If we can all be allowed to make up our own little report cards, I would like to submit my own and since mine grades the degree of academic integrity, I award As to the University of Alberta and its president, Indira Samarasekera. High marks to all for not kowtowing to special-interest groups.

As I see it, the university can either forgo all industry support, which would mean a billion-dollar bill being passed onto taxpayers, or continue the tradition of accepting help from those who can best afford it, but within well-established guidelines.

And how were the report cards for Action on Smoking and Health, and Physicians for a Smoke Free Canada? When marking for integrity and for advocating in the public interest, I am afraid no more than a C. (It would have been a D, but I gave them a few points for effort.)

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LETTER: Research saves lives 

Re: "Universities fail the test," by Les Hagen, Letters, Dec. 11, and "U of A's double standard," by Dr. Charl Els, Letters, Dec. 13.

Les Hagen and Dr. Charl Els are upset with the U of A for accepting funding from tobacco companies.

How much research has been accomplished by this funding? How many lives have been saved by the outcome of this research?

I know that smoking is bad for you. I smoke and I understand it is an addiction as well as a social habit. Will I die from a smoking-related disease? Who knows? I do know that at some point, I will die.

The U of A should continue to accept tobacco funding because it needs the money to do the excellent work and research.

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LETTER: U of A's double standard 

Re: "Universities fail the test," by Les Hagen, Letters, Dec. 11.

Les Hagen's letter stops short of mentioning that the major health faculties at the U of A -- the School of Public Health, the faculty of medicine and dentistry, and the nursing school -- have all implemented policies to ban tobacco industry funding. So have Harvard, the Mayo Clinic, the Johns Hopkins, and many other prestigious post-secondary institutions.

However, Indira Samarasekera, president of the University of Alberta, maintains that the U of A will not consider policy banning tobacco money.

Help me understand: Is the U of A so fixated on the bottom line that it is willing to ignore values in some faculties but not in others? What kind of leadership is this?

On this one, not only the university, but also Samarasekera gets an "F".

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LETTER: Tobacco research has its place 

Re: "Universities fail the test," by Les Hagen, Letters, Dec. 11.

Les Hagen has followed a common approach of narrow-minded special interest groups, creating a "report card" to measure how much others obey their demands. In this case, they demand that universities prohibit research that is funded by tobacco companies, and thereby abandon their most cherished ethic, academic freedom. What Hagen does not tell us is that this is done to protect his extremist political agenda from competing ideas.

Hagen's complaints about the industry are outdated, as are his anti-tobacco tactics. Most of the new and promising ideas for substantially reducing the health effects from smoking and nicotine use are coming from the industry itself.

As a recipient of one of the research grants Hagen condemns, I work to tell smokers who are not quitting that they can still reduce their risks by 99 per cent by switching to smokeless tobacco or other low-risk sources of nicotine (see TobaccoHarmReduction.org for details).

This is perhaps the greatest untapped public health measure available in our society. . . .

Those of us in public health want to help people. But anti-tobacco extremists would rather just punish smokers with high taxes and other regulations, as well as by letting them die.

By trying to persuade or blackmail universities into cutting off research they do not approve of, Hagen and his friends hope to keep smokers from learning there are low-risk alternatives.

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LETTER: HAGEN: Universities fail the test 

Recently, Action on Smoking and Health released a report card on tobacco industry funding at Alberta's 22 publicly funded post-secondary institutions. The results were discouraging and showed that most institutions are ripe for the tobacco industry's picking.

Only two institutions -- the University of Lethbridge and Bow Valley College -- had formal policies in place to prevent tobacco industry investments and funding respectively.

Nineteen institutions, including MacEwan College and NAIT, received a "D" for not having any formal policies in place to prevent tobacco industry funding or investments.

Alberta's largest post-secondary institution -- the University of Alberta -- received an "F" for accepting millions of dollars in tobacco industry funding and for investing millions in tobacco company stocks. . . .

Tobacco has no place in higher learning. We hope that all post-secondary institutions will clean up their act and put strong policies in place to prevent tobacco industry funding, investments and exploitation.

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